For being a mid 70's thriller/horror flick... we're still talking about Carrie today. It's no Shining or Dawn of the Dead, but this still is a classic.
The plot is quite simple... you have Carrie White. The most shyest and teased young lady in high school, even teased for getting her period unexpectedly. When you're watching Carrie, her character is so believable... that you start to remember how you knew a girl like Carrie in school. Except for Carrie, she's gifted with one of the best powers shown in movies... being telekenetic. What really breaks Carries heart in the end, is when the kids teased her once too often at prom... there her mind killing powers took control.
Sissy Spacek as Carrie... was one of the most memorable performances ever with her frightened frozen expressions. Later going on to do other great performances in movies like In The Bedroom(Marissa Tomei), and even the new Ring Two(Naomi Watts). Amy Irving played one of the girls who cared and teased Carrie, also contributing a great part to this cast. I thought it was fantastic that she was in the sequel, The Rage Carrie 2. You also had a small role by Nancy Allen... who played as Robocops partner, in all three Robocop flicks. A very small role by John Travolta, just extending this pheonomenal young cast.
Brian De Palma is one huge reason of why Carrie was such an excellent film. Directing other powerful movies such as Scarface(Al Pacino), The Untouchables(Kevin Costner), Carlito's Way(Al Pacino), and Casualties of War(Michael J Fox). If you like any of these movies and there suspense... Carrie is just as geat.
Carrie is a great film, because she has so much weirdness to her, and her lifestyle... that you can feel sorry for her. You see her crazy mother screaming out biblical quotes, you see Carrie continously being teased, with the slamming of lockers and the glass nearby exploding.
Carrie isn't one of my favorite movies ever, sorry to say. It's something I haven't watched recently in fact. Still, Carrie is orginal, it's something you can relate to... being picked on when growing up. Carrie will forever go down as one of the first bloodiest revenge stories ever shown.

Stunning performances from an all-star cast (especially from Sissy Spacek as the sweet Carrie and Piper Laurie as he psychotic mother), a marvelously adapted script from the original novel, a beautiful music score and Brian De Palma's incredible visuals help to make this chilling film what it is: an absolutely terrifying classic of modern horror.

In 1974, Stephen King wrote a novel called "Carrie". At the time, he hadn't been known, he was struggling financially, and he was an English teacher earning next to nothing. He wrote the first few pages to Carrie and immediately threw them in the trash, thinking it was terrible. His wife came by, pulled the pages out of the trash and urged him to continue. She thought it was good, and after King finally finished the novel, he was willing to admit he liked it too.

King ended up earning as much as Mario Puzo did for "The Godfather" in advancement pay for the book, and Carrie launched his career. Two years after Carrie ran away with selling over three million copies, Brian DePalma adapted it into a film. Today it's known as a horror movie classic! And since it's movie debut in 1976, nearly every story Stephen King writes gets adapted into film!

Carrie is your classic story about a misunderstood girl. She's trapped by her over-christian mother, who never lets her do anything, and is picked on constantly.

One fine day at school, Carrie experiences her first period, and several students throwing sanity napkins at her screaming "Plug it up!" Carrie, helpless because she's never had her period before, slumps in the corner in shame. She goes home to her extreme christian mother, and her mother thinks she must've sinned.

As Carrie goes on, taking torture from other students, there's one out there that feels sorry for her. Her name is Sue Snell, and she manages to convince her boyfriend to take Carrie to the prom.

Of course, Carrie's mother doesn't approve of it. And as Carrie begins to find her own independence, she also begins to discover her unique ability to move things with her mind. The power of Telekinesis.

Chris, a girl who has nothing better to do than torture Carrie, gets suspended for the stunt of throwing sanity napkins and tampons at Carrie, decides to get even with her. She gets her boyfriend, and they go and get some pigs blood.

During prom, Carrie and Sue's boyfriend, Tommy, are elected Prom King and Queen, and that's when Chris pulls her stunt that will soon bring about the death of nearly everyone at the prom.

When Carrie finally gets the pigs blood dumped on her, she snaps and takes her revenge! Of it's time (and even today) the scene is still amazing to look at. Even though they left out one of the best lines in the book ("Pigs blood for the pig!") they did manage to portray the destruction caused at prom.

The movie only shows the Prom massacre, but in the book, the whole town felt the rage of Carrie! Luckily, this part isn't thrown into the movie as it is too much for some to handle.

While it doesn't look nearly as good as it did twenty years ago, it's still an amazing film to watch. The first Stephen King adaptation, turns out to be one of the better ones. Later adaptations as memorbale as Carrie ("Misery" "Stand By Me" and "The Shawshank Redemption" to name a few) came a little too few and far between, but Carrie in itself was a treat.

To this day, the acting is still memorable, and the scene that made Carrie a popular film (the last scene) is still perfect. If you enjoy Stephen King, Carrie is the perfect example of what an adaptation should be. It's not exactly like the book, but it still keeps the basic idea. THAT'S what a movie adaptation should be.

It certainly doesn't live up to horror standards today. By that I mean, it really isn't scary at all. Horror movies even today aren't scary. But you'll love this movie. Any Stephen King fan owes it to himself/herself to see this film.

Usually I give a review on how good a movie is, it's nuances, acting, and writing. But this is something to all the NUTS later in this page: what happened to Carrie on prom night was TERRIBLE, but get over it, she got revenge in a sick way. People don't enjoy pain, they relate to it, just as I relate to Carrie, and Chris, and Billy, and Sue, and Miss Collins and the rest. Now, one person wrote a VERY long comment on Columbine, and pigs blood, and other stuff. Have you read the book? If not, read it, you might think differenty, Carrie went home STRICTLY to kill her mother, the movie adapted almost all of Carrie's evil thoughts into something to make you pity her. In it's own right this a great movie, but if you want an indepth social commentary...go watch one. Stop over analyzing a f*cking horror film. Ta ta. (I would say be good to eachother like I usally do, but I'm kinda pissy right now)

P.S. (or whatever)
Please exscuse my bad spelling and grammar, I wrote this irritated.

I don't really see how this film, 'Carrie', about a teenage girl with psychic powers who eventually goes out of control, could be scary.
And don't think I'm bagging the movie. It has a lot of good stuff in it, and it's in my top twenty films. The ending is amazing, a cinematic triumph, but I fail to see any build up of tension, and there is but one 'jump' scene.
The infamous blood scene is astonishing, and I guess that scene could be 'scary', but if you are expecting horrible gut-wrenching fear, you are mistaken in the preconception.
But it's a good film, and a great adaption of Stephen King's book.